In what has always been a polarised political environment, it certainly felt good last Tuesday and Thursday to see the nomination of George Vella as President of the Republic being supported and approved by both sides of the House of Representatives, minus the Bonnie and Clyde tandem. One hopes that this can be taken as the purveyor of better things to come in the process of finally stifling the extreme negativity that peaked immediately after the appointment of a new Opposition Leader way back in 2013.
I have already used this borrowed space to write about Dr Vella’s undoubted credentials for Malta’s highest position, using the cliched title of ‘A Man for all Seasons’. I guess the overuse of certain cliches can sometimes be easily justified, as in this case, but then I suppose that is why they are called ‘cliches’: people find them ready-made for perusal.
I got this annoying feeling, however, when the current, embattled, Opposition Leader Dr Adrian Delia said, in his intervention on George Vella’s nomination, that the Opposition was hoping the Government would make the unifying gesture of opting for the nomination of one from a list of possible papabili submitted by the Opposition. The same gesture, he added, that the Nationalist Government had made in 2008 when it nominated a candidate from the Labour camp: a misconception if ever there was one.
One would be impressed if he or she did not know the political wind prevailing over 10 years ago. The Gonzi government had retained power by the skin of its teeth, obtaining only a relative majority in the House and that by less than an electoral quota in just one district. People rightly expected to see some sort of institutional balance to reflect the situation, but people were also conscious of the fact that the Gonzi nominee, George Abela – whose presidency eventually was a highly successful and fruitful one – was not at that moment in time in Labour’s good books and the mutual discomfort with then Opposition leader Alfred Sant had been part of a daily Maltese political soap opera since at least 1998.
It was easy to see through both the hypocrisy and the intention behind the nomination, although the Labour Opposition had wisely found no difficulty with it. The obtrusive idea behind it was to tempt the suddenly much-stronger Opposition to object and, in so doing, being instantly condemned for its “divisive” attitude. This same pin-pricking strategy has resurfaced during the past few weeks when the son of President Abela, Robert – today a prominent Labour MP – was sadly used as futile political bait in the pro-Nationalist media.
Adrian Delia’s call for the President to be appointed by a mandatory two-thirds majority in the House, along with the transfer of more power to the country’s highest post is, however, certainly not an idea to be discarded and one hopes that the on-going Constitutional talks will lead to – among other much-needed reforms – such an agreement.
Two out of five could work
Every time 31st March comes around and Malta – or at least a major chunk of her population – celebrates Freedom Day, the debate unfailingly switches to the absurd reality of this blob of land having no fewer than five national holidays. This old constitutional compromise has been with us for decades now and it really is time to click out of the political joke once played on the nation.
There is, however, one big problem. There are so many different views as to which of these five national holidays should be chosen, hopefully for posterity, that the clans quickly opt for refuge in the long-standing positions that had helped create the conundrum in the first place. It’s quite like the current Brexit issue in the UK, where no-one seems to know exactly what’s coming or going and who wants what or not.
Needless to say, we all have our own preferred historic date to propose, which makes it even more difficult to come up with a compromise that is not the daft (as seen with hindsight, of course) compromise that everyone wants to see deleted from our Constitution. The historians, poor chaps, who – it must be said – have their own chips on their shoulders, have not helped with their interpretations of the events we commemorate. Most people suggest the day that is most associated with their party/political leanings, ie Nationalists for 21st September (Independence), Labourites for 31st March (Freedom), some others – like yours truly – for 13th December (Republic), while the rest incline towards either their religious roots for 8th September (Victory) or the eternally-contested 7th June (anti-British riots).
Last Sunday, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat gave an incredibly good rendering of what both Independence Day and Freedom Day mean from a 21st-Century perspective. It convinced me to be more inclined to think that the better compromise would be declaring both as National Holidays, leaving the other three as public holidays: major events that deserve such status. Two out of five could work, possibly nurturing the forlorn hope that both could also be celebrated in unison. Should the guillotine fall on one or the other, one can only expect the digging of deeper trenches over an issue that has, for far too long, been crying out loud for a final settlement.
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Water into wine, wine into whisky
The story of Archbishop Charles Scicluna finding whisky – and not wine – in his chalice during a religious ceremony at St John’s Co-Cathedral was the stuff of some pure, Blackadder comedy, were it not an innocent mistake by the sacristan who has since apologised. He understandably explained that it was “in no way done as a joke or as a form of disrespect.”
However, the story did take me back to the time of my Kalkara childhood when we boys used to coerce some of our altarboy friends into secretly getting some of the sacramental wine – hidden away somewhere behind the atlar – for sharing among us.
The story in St John’s Gospel of the Wedding at Cana and the water being turned into wine inevitably also came to mind, this time, however, with the wine turning into whisky. But, seriously, what was the Scotch doing inside another chalice in the cathedral – a place of worship? Talk about sacred spirits.